by M. M. Kaye
“That depends on where you intend to go. If you are thinking of taking me to pay a call on our respected Consul, I shall be only too pleased to accompany you—so you can stop fingering that pistol in such an intimidating manner. I should tell you that he will be expecting us, for Hajji Ralub went ashore well over half-an-hour ago to inform him that I should do myself the honour of calling upon him as soon as you were ready to provide a suitable escort for me. He must be wondering how much longer you’re going to be about it Shall we go?”
Dan’s cold blue gaze did not waver and his smile was as chilly and unpleasant as his eyes. He said meditatively: “I’d give a good deal to know why you think you can talk your way out of this. You must have some good reason for it, and for coming back here openly. I imagine you’re counting on your friends up at the Palace to save your neck. But that nag won’t run this time.”
“It’s their country,” observed Rory mildly.
“But you’re not a citizen of it. You’re a British subject and as such can be summarily dealt with under British law.”
“By which you mean summarily hanged.”
“That’s right.”
“On what grounds?”
“Murder, Kidnapping and Incitement to Violence.”
“Dear me! It sounds very damning. But I feel that both you and the Colonel are running grave risks if you intend to execute me without the formality of a trial. Aren’t you afraid that some officious Member of Parliament may ask a question in the House?”
“Not in the least. The British public are hardly likely to interest themselves in the fate of a renegade rapist, and I cannot see that it will help you very much if they do, since you will already be dead. Besides, it will be pointed out that the situation prevailing here was of such delicacy that your immediate demise, as the instigator of the riots, was necessary for the safety of the community. And you needn’t worry yourself over the matter of a trial, because we’ll see that you have one; if it’s any satisfaction to you. Colonel Edwards has already taken the signed testimony of a good many reliable witnesses, and you can be sure that he will be ready to listen to anything you have to say in your own defence before he passes sentence on you.”
“Good of him. But surely a waste of time if he has, as you suggest, already made up his mind to put an end to my existence?”
“It will look better in the report,” said Dan blandly.
The Captain’s laugh held a note of genuine appreciation, and he said without mockery: “Danny, you are a man after my own heart. Which is more than I can say for that humourless old fragment of rectitude, Edwards! But what makes you think you can persuade me to put my head into your noose?”
Dan’s mouth stretched in an unsmiling grin and he made a brief gesture with the weapon he held: “This, for one thing. And for another, I have half-a-dozen men out there, and they are all armed.”
“I know. I saw them. The gentleman who designed this ship did not have those portholes put in solely with a view to ventilation.”
For the first time a flicker of doubt showed in the Lieutenant’s eyes, and Rory saw it and laughed again. “Come, come, Dan! You must have known that I’d be expecting a reception committee. You should have given the situation a little more thought and moved your ship before you came visiting. As it is, you can’t bring your guns to bear on me from where you’re lying. Let me show you something, Dan. You see that dhow out there? Her crew were at their prayers when you passed, but while I have been keeping you here talking they have concluded their devotions, and by now every one of your seamen will be covered by at least three muskets—not counting those on a dhow that you will observe to starboard. You see, I still have a few friends in these waters.”
“My guns—” began Dan, and was interrupted:
“Oh, I don’t deny that your guns could probably blow the dhow out of the water once your shipmates realized what had happened to you. But if you will forgive the plagiarism, I don’t see that it would help you very much if they did, for you would already be dead.”
The lines that strain and responsibility had etched on Dan’s sunburned skin grew deeper, and his face seemed to stiffen, but he resisted the temptation to glance towards either of the two open portholes that flanked the narrow cabin, and only his trigger finger moved, tightening ominously on the cold curve of metal. He said grimly: “You forget that you will have predeceased me, for if any of your cut-throat friends open fire I shall shoot you on the instant. I mean that!”
“I’m sure you do,” grinned Captain Frost. “And they won’t. But that pistol of yours fails to impress me, for even you must see that it at least offers me a quicker and cleaner exit than choking to death at the end of a rope. Besides, if you use it you will only make yourself responsible for a far worse outbreak of violence than anything that has gone before, and you’re supposed to be here to prevent further bloodshed; not to stir it up again. Much as you and the Colonel would enjoy seeing me swing, I’m afraid you’re going to have to deny yourselves that pleasure. For the time being, anyway. So I suggest you stop fingering that trigger and go up on deck and tell your men to return peacefully to their ship, and as soon as they’ve gone some of my own men can row us ashore to pay a call on the Consul. Well, Dan?”
The muscles of Dan’s right hand tightened and quivered, and for a fleeting moment it seemed as though he would pull the trigger and take the consequences. But five harsh years patrolling the East African coast had not failed to teach him the unwisdom of leaping before he looked, and rage had already driven him to make one serious mistake that morning. He looked now, with a cold anger that did nothing to obscure the truth, and saw only too clearly that Captain Emory Frost was right. To provoke an exchange of shots between his own men and the dhows that lay on either side of the Virago would almost certainly end in his own death and that of the jolly-boat’s crew. And although the Daffodil’s guns could be counted upon to exact a terrible vengeance, the sight of a pitched battle between a British ship and a pair of Arab dhows would infallibly touch off a further explosion of violence in the city; with consequences that did not bear contemplating.
Dan let his breath out in an audible sigh and lowered the pistol, and Rory smiled and said: “That’s better. I thought you’d see reason.”
He watched the Lieutenant turn and leave the cabin, heard him speak briefly to his men, and presently saw the jolly-boat returning across the harbour to the Daffodil The bluff had worked. For it had been a bluff. Amah-ben-Labadi was no fool, and though it amused him to indulge Captain Frost and bedevil the Lieutenant with a little harmless playacting, the fact that his dhow offered a certain and sitting target for the Daffodil‘s guns was enough to ensure that every musket handled by his volatile crew that morning had first been prudently unloaded. But Dan would not know that, and Rory calculated that even if he suspected a bluff it was one that he would not dare call, since the men who manned the dhows had an unenviable reputation, and the European community in Zanzibar was small and virtually unprotected.
Considering that he had every intention of calling on the British Consul, anyone unacquainted with Emory Frost might be excused for thinking that this hollow show of force was a singularly useless piece of trickery. But then Rory knew that the incident would be reported to Colonel Edwards, and that neither Dan nor the Colonel could have any desire, at such a time, to risk a confrontation between the dhows and the Daffodil, It was for this reason alone that he had staged that charade, in the hope that it might serve to impress on both gentlemen the fact that the members of his crew were not without allies. A point which had, he trusted, been taken.
Nevertheless, he was well aware that so far he had been gambling with the odds heavily in his favour. It was the next throw that was the crucial one and he was less certain of the outcome, for once ashore and out of range of the dhows the advantage would lie with Colonel Edwards, who might not be prepared to come to terms. Well, if so he, Rory, had at least taken what steps he could to improve the bargaining position of
his ship and his crew.
Dan was waiting for him on deck, and as the sun lipped the horizon and washed the white rooftops of the city in a dazzle of light, they landed at the rubbish-strewn beach near the British Consulate and walked up through a hot, airless alleyway to the door where two of the Sultan’s Baluchis still stood on guard and Haj ji Ralub, watched by a third who held his musket at the ready, waited in the sharp-etched shadow of a gold mohur tree.
“I have told this ox that I remain here of my own will,” grunted Ralub disgustedly, “but these fools say that if I am not watched I will run away. Tell them that there is no need to set a guard on me, and that I wait for your orders.”
“They would not believe it, Hajji,” said Rory. “Be patient I shall not be too long.”
The British Consul was at his desk and waiting, and if the situation surprised him he gave no sign of it He did not return the Captain’s polite greeting, but sat back in his chair to give his attention to Lieutenant Larrimore’s account of the morning’s proceedings, and when Dan had ceased speaking, turned his bleak gaze on Captain Frost and said coldly:
“I shall not waste my time reciting the details of the indictment against you, because you must be well aware of them. To be brief, you are charged with inciting a mob to attack the foreign consulates in Zanzibar, fomenting riots that resulted in the death of two persons and the injury of many others, and abducting with violence the citizen of a friendly power. I now hear that you have only this morning threatened to open fire on Her Majesty’s forces, regardless of the fact that this would instantly lead to further anti-European demonstrations and make you directly responsible for the loss of a great many more lives. So you will understand that I have no alternative but to pronounce the capital sentence upon you and see that it is carried out immediately. Have you anything to say?”
“Certainly. Otherwise I should not be here,” said Rory equably. “May I sit?”
He did not wait for permission, but reaching behind him drew up a chair and sat down astride it, his arms folded along the back and his chin resting upon them in an attitude that betokened considerably more confidence than he felt. He saw the frigid anger gleam in the Colonel’s eyes and the swift tensing of Dan Larrimore’s muscles, but neither man made any move towards him, and the Colonel said harshly and with an effort: “I am aware—well aware—that you must have felt both grieved and angered by the outrage committed against a member of your household, and by its tragic consequences. But that cannot be held to excuse the brutal action you yourself took against an innocent and unfortunate—”
He found himself unable to complete the sentence, for there was suddenly something in the expression on the lean face that looked back at him that checked him as effectually as a blow across the mouth, and he was startled to find himself flushing as hotly as though he had been guilty of some gross breach of propriety. For the space of a full minute there was complete silence in the small white-walled office, and an oppressive sense of tension that had not been there before.
It was broken by the Colonel’s dry embarrassed cough, and the rigidity went out of Rory’s face: the long lines of his body were once again relaxed and at ease, and he said lightly: “I have no intention of excusing myself. Shall we dispense with abstract questions and get down to bargaining? I have a proposition to make.”
The Colonel made an angry movement of repudiation, and Rory lifted an admonitory hand and said: “Wait! You asked me if I had anything to say, and before you put on the black cap you had better listen to it. You have something that I want: a child and an old man whom you are at present holding prisoner in my house. If you will let them go aboard the Virago, together with any of my servants and crew who wish to accompany them, and permit them to sail on the next tide, I will surrender myself in exchange, and you can do what you like with me. Though I think it only fair to warn you that it would be unwise to try hanging me until my friends are well out of range. Well, those are my terms. And very generous ones, if you ask me.”
“Very!” agreed Dan sarcastically, “considering that we have you already and so the question of your surrender, voluntary or otherwise, does not arise. There are no dhows protecting you here, and by now my ship will have moved to where she can get her gun-sights on yours. You’ve nothing to bargain with, and if that’s all you have to say—”
Colonel Edwards, who had been watching Rory’s face, silenced the younger man with an authoritative gesture, and said quietly: “I presume there is something more. May I ask what action you intend taking in the event of your terms being rejected?”
“You may. I should be loath to start any further trouble in the city, but I have several friends who for purely selfish reasons would be only too pleased to foment further disorders. My crew have their instructions; and if I surrender to you voluntarily, letting it be known that I have done so and that you have accepted my terms, they will see to it that there are no further disturbances on my account. You have my word for that.”
“The word of a blackguardly slaver!” snapped Dan, unable to contain himself. “Why, you crooked, contemptible kidnapper, there isn’t a man in his senses who would accept anything from you, let alone your word, and if you think—”
“Be quiet, Larrimore!” admonished the Consul brusquely; and turned again to Captain Frost: “And if you do not surrender voluntarily?”
Rory grinned at him and shook his head. “Oh no! If I told you the how and the where you might be able to take measures to prevent it. Though I doubt if they’d be successful. But you can take the word of a blackguardly slaver that if you try and hold me without my consent a lot of innocent people are going to suffer for it Which may upset you, but will not worry me in the least.”
“You’re bluffing,” said Dan angrily. “There’s nothing you or your friends could do. They won’t face being shelled, and even the Sultan won’t dare lift a finger to help you if we train the guns on the city and threaten to open fire at the first sign of trouble.”
“Rule, Britannia!” said Emory Frost. “All right Dan: I’m bluffing. Are you going to call me?”
Dan did not answer, and Rory laughed and said: “You know you daren’t—because of what might happen if the Sultan called yours and told you to go ahead and fire.”
“We’ve restored order before without that,” said Dan shortly. “And we can do it again.”
“I doubt it. You had the city on your side last time, but this time it would be the townspeople themselves whom you would be fighting, and not a piratical rabble of invaders who every right-thinking citizen fears and detests. You’d have no allies, and as I happen to know that the next British ship isn’t expected here for a fortnight, you’d be taking on the whole Island. There are too few of you to do that.”
He saw that the truth of this had given the Lieutenant pause, and followed up his advantage: “Come off your high horse and talk sense, Dan. And you too, sir. You’ve no quarrel with old Batty Potter or a baby. Or with my crew for that matter, who were merely obeying my orders. I’m the one you want, and if you let them go you can keep me under lock and key until the Cormorant arrives, and then send me off to be sentenced in some less explosive spot where no one’ll give a damn whether I hang or not. What have you got to lose? Or does wholesale revenge mean more to you than the safety of—shall we say—Miss Cressida Hollis?”
“You bastard!” said Dan in a whisper. “You dirty, renegade bastard!”
He took a swift stride forward and the Consul leant across the desk and caught his sleeve, jerking him back: “Sit down. Lieutenant!…thank you.’ He resumed his seat and turned his cold grey eyes on the Captain: “The word, Mr Frost, is ‘justice,’ not ‘revenge.’ And I do not myself believe that you have sufficient following in Zanzibar to put your threats into effect. But unhappily you are correct in assuming that we are in no position to risk any further outbreaks of violence. We also have no quarrel with the city and no intention of provoking one, and it is for these reasons, and only these, that I am forced to
accept your conditions.”
Rory removed his arms from the back of the chair and stood up. “Thank you, sir.”
“Wait!” The Consul lifted a commanding hand. “That is not all: I have a few conditions of my own. I am willing to remove the guard from your house and permit the occupants to leave, and I will give your men twenty-four hours in which to take on water and provisions and make any arrangements they have to make. But if they are not clear of the harbour by the end of that time I shall consider the contract void, and if I hear later that they have landed in any other part of the Island, or on Pemba, I shall have no hesitation in ordering them to be detained. Is that quite clear?”
“Perfectly, thank you. But I assure you they will not be landing anywhere on the Sultan’s territory.”
“That is just as well. There is also one other matter. I cannot for die moment dispense with the services of the Daffodil, and as I do not intend to hamper Lieutenant Larrimore by requesting him to hold you on board, or to keep you in custody myself in this house, I shall ask the Sultan’s permission for you to be imprisoned in the Fort until such time as the Cormorant‘s arrival relieves them of your charge. But as I am only too well aware that you possess influential friends in Zanzibar who might be able to arrange your escape, I must ask you to give me your parole.”
Dan made a sharp, protesting movement but did not speak, and Rory’s blond eyebrows lifted in surprise. He said with an odd note in his voice: “You flatter me, sir. What makes you think I would honour it?”
The Colonel said dryly: “The fact that knowing what it would mean, you returned here of your own accord for the sake of an old man and a child. I may of course be mistaken. But that is a risk I am prepared to take.”
Rory’s reluctant grin dawned, and he said lightly, but with a curious note of bitter self-mockery in his drawling voice: “You win, sir. Strange how ‘conscience doth make cowards of us all!’ You have my word that I will not attempt to escape from the Fort.”